Ashlings to Ashes
by ButterflyMouse
Summary: My name is Elsie Seraphim. After an accident with the Zebrakhen machine, I was transported seventeen years into the past… Life on Mars/Obernewtyn cross over.


**A/N: This is just a weird idea that popped into my head one day and I'm writing it for novelty's sake. I'm not quite happy with it yet, but I wanted to put it up now rather than have it sitting around on my computer for the next six weeks while I'm away on holiday.**

**I find it highly likely that this fic will be completely contradicted by The Sending (as in I am 99.9999999999999% certain), so this is purely for the sake of my-and, hopefully, your- amusement. I know that a lot of people don't like the idea of Elspeth having children, but can we please run with it for the sake of the story? I don't think it would work as well if it were anyone else.**

**This is an Obernewtyn-Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes cross over. I don't think you need to have seen either TV show in order to enjoy this fic. I plan to make sure that everything is explained.**

* * *

**Ashlings to Ashes**

Swallowing my anxieties, I took one long, _deep_ breath and entered the caves. They had not changed in the time I had spent away – to be sure, it had not been that long – yet I _had_ expected some small difference. What, I wasn't sure of, but it all felt the same. The familiarity was omnipresent.

Truly, I might never have left. The same boxes of artefacts and piles of papers lined the walls. The same faces bustled past me, smiling in greeting as though I had not been gone – though perhaps it was more that they had not noticed my absence, now _that_ would be unsurprising. The same bugs crawled the walls. The same dampness filled the air. The same feeling of belonging, but not belonging haunted every step I took. It was time to face the music; three months as Ward had altered nothing.

I stroked the small cat brooch I wore for comfort as I hastened through the corridors.

Though I had been cross-guilded to the Teknoguild for the majority of my life, I had never been as easy here as my peers. With all of Obernewtyn to choose between, it was here that I felt the most uncomfortable. The reason was simple; all teknoguilders strived for knowledge of the past, but while the others wished for it to sate their curiosities, I wished to know my mother. Father said she had possessed good reason to leave us and I knew that to be true, but I had to know what it was. And I was _going_ to find out – come hell or high water.

Talib's desk and study were the usual mess of artefacts and paper. He smiled as I entered, but when I failed to return it, he knew something was wrong.

"What's got you all in a grump then?" he asked with characteristic bluntness. I shrugged and sat down awkwardly in a chair by the door, I really wasn't ready for this conversation - it had been hard enough to ask the first time.

"How were the lowlands?" he wondered, probing for information, "Desana still getting on your nerves?"

I scowled at his mention of my father's 'partner'. She was nice enough, I supposed, just not as a potential member or my family. As a child, I had wished constantly for my mother to return. Now I longed for the days when it was just my father and me. We definitely did not need _Desana_.

Talib grinned, "Now that's more like it. C'mon Elsie, do us both a favour and just spit it out,"

I took a deep breath. He was right, prolonging this conversation was just making it harder. Swallowing my nerves, I managed to choke out the words I needed;

"Talib, I need a favour"

*****

He wasn't happy. Not with the fact that I was asking for a favour, his problem was with what the favour was. My mother left us in the Red Queen's land, where I was born. She disappeared into the night, following Ariel and the Farseeker Ward Matthew. She was never seen again. All I had left of her was a small cat shaped brooch with a tiny transparent jewel for an eye.

When I was 12 years old it occurred to me to try and sift through the memories it held. If I looked deep enough, surely I would find some of my mothers?

Needless to say, it didn't work. I'd worn that brooch everyday since I was six years old and sporadically before that. When I wasn't wearing it, my father had carried it. There were too many memories from later times to find the ones I looked for. But I never gave up.

Six months ago I'd convinced Talib to help me use the Zebkrahn to enhance my ability to probe objects. He wasn't happy then either, but had complied. I'd managed to go back much further with the help of the machine, but not far enough. Talib had insisted on giving up before we risked pushing the machine too far. We didn't want a repeat of what had happened to my mother.

Now though, now I was ready to try again. The object in my pocket weighed heavily at my side while Talib ranted before me; he claimed that it was pointless. What could possibly give us a better chance of success now? What could we possibly do that we hadn't done then? If anything it should be _harder_ now rather than easier....

I stayed silent and let him finish his rant. It took a while, but eventually he quietened. Wordlessly I reached into my pocket and pulled out my father's most precious possession; my cat brooch's twin.

*****

In the end, he hadn't taken much convincing. He knew how desperate I must be if I were willing to steal my father's brooch. It was precious to him, the only reason it wasn't with him now was that he was terrified of losing it. He only wore it within the walls of Obernewtyn. When he went to the lowlands he left it here, where I had stolen it.

This was significant. It meant that it held fewer memories, and fewer memories meant a much simpler path to my mother. I hoped this would work.

I now stood in the main teknoguild cavern with Talib just a few metres away.

"You're sure about this?" probed Talib nervously.

"Relax," I grumbled, "We'll be quick and I'll have put the brooch back in place long before anyone will have noticed it's gone"

"I was talking about the Zebkrahn. You know very well your father would be far more worried about you strapping yourself to this thing than he would be about any trinket, no matter who gave it to him"

"Just help me get ready, would you?"

I took out the twin cat pins and held one in each hand. When I was seated on the bench of the Zebkrahn, Talib began to strap me in. It didn't take long, after all, we had done this before. When the last of the wires were in place, he stood back and place his hands on the controls.

"Ready?" he asked softly.

I hesitated. When my mother had given these to Matthew to pass on, she had been very specific that the sand cat should go to my father. Had insisted on it. I wondered now if it was because it held a memory she would not want me to find. A sense of foreboding crept up my spine, but I ignored it. I _had_ to know.

I took a deep breath, "I'm ready"

Talib switched the machine on and a slight buzz began to sound between my ears. I could feel my power building as it warmed up. When I felt that enough power had gathered, I gently pushed my mind toward the twin cat pins I held in my hands.

The moment my mind touched my own brooch, I was assaulted with the usual images I received when probing the object; random thoughts from my recent past. Stretching out to the sand cat, they were soon joined by my father's memories. Ignoring the images of Desana which threatened to trigger my anger, I attempted to use the pair to focus on the memories they had in common. No luck, they were buried deeply.

"Turn it up!"

Talib complied and the buzz intensified. With it, I could feel my strength grow and pushed further back into the past. I now saw dual images of myself as a child, I was getting close. Seeing a memory of myself on my third birthday, I realised that I'd managed to reach further back than I ever had before.

"Again!" I called out. Talib seemed reluctant, but nevertheless did as I bade him.

The buzzing was almost painful now, but I wasn't giving up. My father's brooch was now sending me clear pictures of my baby self, which meant I was only moments away from my mother's memories.

"Again!" I shouted

But Talib seemed to have had enough. "No way," he argued "It's too much Elsie! We'll break the machine!"

"_Please_, I'm _so_ close, just a little more! Once more!? _Please!_"

Sighing, Talib turned it up once more.

The buzzing was definitely painful now and very distracting, I struggled to keep from groaning under the pressure, knowing that Talib would switch the machine of immediately if I did. Somehow I managed to keep my mind on the job, attempting to focus the pins to reveal the memories they shared.

Finally, _finally_, I witnessed a memory of my Mother handing the pins to Matthew.

But it was as if a damn had broken; hundreds of her memories flooded my mind, too quickly to process them. Screaming, I threw up a block to try to slow them, but it was useless. I was vaguely aware of Talib trying to turn the machine off again, but the onslaught of memory continued. As more and more images assaulted me, one gradually began to grow in dominance until all I could see was my father's mad, snarling face burned across my vision. I screamed again and retreated, back into the secret depths of my mind. The last thing I remembered was the shouts of the other Tecknoguilders racing into the cavern, awoken by my screams. Then all was dark.

*****

I woke sometime later with a pounding headache which seemed to shove spears through my eyes. Squinting about, I recognised the white washed walls and tapestries of the healer wing. I was shocked - they must have been very worried about me to move me down to the main building. I wondered nervously if they called for my father to return from the lowlands.

Yet any such concerns were quickly pushed away as I glanced out the window. I gasped, my mouth flying open in shock. I went to the cave in the days of rain, the leaves had turned brown a _moon_ before, but the view I now saw outside was of Summer, with thick, green, _vibrant_ leaves on every tree I could see.

_How long had I been asleep!?_

* * *

**So, any thoughts? Please review :D  
**


End file.
